The Sierra Club's members and supporters are more than 2 million of your friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. We’re America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.

We're involved in environmental education, conservation, and political issues. We lead fun outings such as hikes, trail maintenance, snow-shoeing walks, and more. Join in and help us protect our air, land and water throughout our beautiful state!

Broad Coalition Cheers Wild Olympics Rivers Legislation

Wild Rivers Campaign News Release - June 4 2015:

QUILCENE, Wash. - The Wild Olympics Coalition cheered the introduction of the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Derek Kilmer to permanently protect more than 126,500 acres of Olympic National Forest as wilderness and 19 rivers and their major tributaries, a total of 464 river miles, as Wild and Scenic Rivers. If enacted, the legislation would designate the first new wilderness on Olympic National Forest in nearly three decades and the first-ever protected wild and scenic rivers on the Olympic Peninsula.

New Designer Needed for The Crest!

The Crest newsletter, published quarterly by the Washington State Chapter of the Sierra Club, is looking for a new designer to start in August. This is a volunteer position working with our volunteer editor and communications team. Each issue requires 10-12 hours of design. Tasks include:

Lay out edited articles, photos and other graphics

Check this website and the Meetup site for upcoming meetings and outings

Communicate with the printer about deadlines

Find public domain photos to supplement what writers send

Send a draft newsletter to editor for review and make final corrections

Recent Crest issues are available on this website. On the home page go to News>> Crest Newsletter. To see the Summer issue click Here

Our Wild America: Campaign Update

So far, 2015 has been a busy time for Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign, ushering in new wilderness areas in the Alpine Lakes as well as permanent protection for three new rivers: the Middle Fork Snoqualmie, Pratt, and Illabot Creek!

The National Park Service has kicked off a long-awaited process to augment the grizzly bear population in Washington’s North Cascades National Park. The Forest Service has invited conservation groups and the public to examine the Northwest Forest Plan–the first ecosystemwide, science-based forest management doctrine that helped end endless old-growth logging in the 1990s. All these opportunities have kept us busy in our enduring effort to protect wild places for generations to come.

Legislative Threats to Public Lands

The new Republican-controlled Congress lost no time introducing legislation that, if enacted, would restrict the president’s authority to protect public wildlands under the Antiquities Act.

This attack on wild and culturally significant lands also extends to Olympia, where several bills were introduced this past legislative session to study the return of federal lands to the state, with the notion that the state can better manage these lands. No explanation was provided for how exactly the state would accomplish this as it struggles to fund its own park system and chronically underfunds education and other key areas.

Washington Legislature Nears its End Game

The 2015 Washington legislative session has been a busy one for Sierra Club staff and activists. This year, Governor Inslee has elevated the issue of climate change by introducing major legislation on carbon pricing, electric cars, and oil transportation safety. Sierra Club has also been a leader on legislation to phase out the Montana Colstrip coal-fired power plant, along with efforts to protect water supplies in rural areas of the state. ...

Columbia River Threatened by New Oil Refinery and Explosive

“We’re facing the warmest decade on record and there is a drought declaration in the Yakima Valley where I live. Locking ourselves into 50 years of dirty fossil fuel production is absolutely the wrong way to go” -- Margie Van Cleve, Chair of the Washington Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The rapid growth of oil trains in the Pacific Northwest now brings a new threat: a proposal for an unprecedented new oil refinery on the Columbia River. Recently obtained documents show Riverside Refining, LLC, seeking a partnership with the Port of Longview to build an oil refinery in Longview, Washington, supplied by controversial oil-by-rail. This would be the first west coast refinery constructed in over 25 years, and the largest new refinery in the continental United States since 1976.

For the rest of the story, see the news release sent on behalf of Sierra Club and other environmental organizations in Washington and Oregon.

South King County Group Restores Habitat and Fights Coal

The South King County Group has a long-term commitment to restoring habitat along Soos Creek.

In spring 2014, for example, members of the South King County Group completed two service events at Soos Creek Park to address rebounding invasive flora at their past planting sites. They also helped with a large King County volunteer event in early September in support of our Soos Creek Park work.

The group received a $5,000 grant from the Rose Foundation to support purchase of plants and hog fuel. Two service outings in October and November included plantings and restoration using these new materials.